Monthly Archives: November 2011

Early in 1968, Pope Paul VI listened to the reports of a committee of Catholic scholars, theologians, clergy and laypersons on what the Catholic position should be on the modern methods of artificial birth control. He turned to God in prayer and from his official position as the representative of Christ to the world, he wrote to communicate the will of God for all Christians. On July 25, 1968 this historic and prophetic letter, Humane Vitae, was promulgated and sent out to all the world. Many people ignored it. Few read it. Of those who read it, many rejected its … Continue reading →

Our Thanksgiving this year was quite non-traditional. We made pot roast in the crock pot and are enjoying it as leftovers. Very low key and relaxing! I’m grateful for my family. I was sorry to miss the traditional fun at my sisters this year but this pregnancy has me staying home so as to avoid becoming over-tired. Looked like everyone had a good time. I’m grateful for my immediate family in particular. My husband Gary is a great blessing to me. I love my kids so much, all of them. My eldest who forgot to call his mother on Thanksgiving … Continue reading →

Well, as I said in my last autoharp related blog post, I am delighted with the OS GD diatonic autoharp. It delighted me so much that when I spotted a lovely walnut and cedar GDA autoharp in a slightly scaled down design I was instantly smitten with Autoharp Acquisition Syndrome or AAS (tongue in cheek joke among people who enjoy autoharps so much they end up with several, usually one chromatic and several diatonics). This lovely instrument became mine after some budget negotiations with my beloved hubby. So now I have a lovely sounding walnut and cedar autoharp that is … Continue reading →

I’ve not tried this before so we shall see how it goes. I was inspired to try this out by My Life In the Domestic Church, Conversion Diary (where I also got the picture above), A Woman’s Place…Depends on Her Vocation (who didn’t do it this week but has in the past and it was neat) and House Unseen, Life Unscripted (who also didn’t do this this week but has done similar ones in the past and again, I liked it.) So you can see I am just blindly copying the cool ladies at the above blogs! 1. I have … Continue reading →

I’ve been exploring a number of interesting crafts as part of being a member of the Society for Creative Anachronisms or SCA for short. SCA is a lot of fun and can be a neat way to learn about history for home school. You try to create a persona who could have lived in a particular era. What did they wear? What fabric did they use? What colors? What foods? ANYTHING having to do with living in that period is part of the fun. I’m making a Byzantine outfit to wear to events. The Byzantine Empire was the remnant of … Continue reading →

My baby had a beautiful baby!!! I am a brand new grandmother. It is an amazing feeling, to have so much love for a little bundle of joy without the stress of having to raise her! She has two perfectly competent adults who will do an admirable job raising her and I only have to show up and enjoy their work. I am so grateful to God for my daughter, her husband and their little blessed bundle of joy. My vocation has just expanded into a new area of life. I can really get into this! … Continue reading →

Over at A Mother’s Place… she posted the question, “Who are your favorite Saints?” and I have so many, then she asked, “Why are these your favorites?” and I realized this was a good blog topic. So here we go: St. Teresa of Avila and St. Edith Stein are favorites from my time studying Carmelite writings and being in formation as a Lay Carmelite. It turned out to not be my path, at least not at this time of my life, and I came away with a deeper understanding of some incredible Saints and Doctors of the Church, a reverence … Continue reading →

1. Well, I cannot say I have made much progress in learning to play my autoharp since I’ve been side-tracked by other parts of my life. However, when a good used Oscar Schmidt Autoharp with Chuck Daniel’s bars and fine tuners added became available for around the price of a new one I jumped into owning a GD diatonic autoharp. As I see it, I’ll get a taste of what all the fuss is about diatonic autoharps at a comparatively low price and have a good loaner for introducing new people to my favorite folk instrument. It is a good … Continue reading →

I love my slow cooker. I love pot roast. Tonight’s roast is 3.4 pounds of cheap pot roast, with most of a bag of red potatoes, two onions, a large bunch of carrots, one eggplant, four stalks of celery, two cans of cream of mushroom soup and water used to rinse the cans poured in too. I use a 6 qt crock pot brand slow cooker. It is a simple one, with a broken hinge on the lid but the lid still works fine without it, and it does low, high, warm and off. Very simple. Rinse the roast and … Continue reading →

CIA: Social Injustice This is a very important video about the problems in the Catholic Campaign for Human Development or CCHD. Helping the poor cannot EVER be combined with ideologies incompatible with Catholic values– and the CCHD, with the full knowledge of the Bishops, hands over millions of dollars to groups that promote directly practices contrary to Catholic values– in other words, if you, as a Catholic, donate to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development YOU are promoting abortion, handouts of condoms, homosexual marriage and communism. Catholic Social teaching condemns abortion, yet the CCHD sends money to groups that promote … Continue reading →

Quicksilver to Gold

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Trinitarian prayer

O my God, I firmly believe that Thou art one God in Three Divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I believe that Thy Divine Son became Man, and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who canst neither deceive nor be deceived. AMEN.